Christmas

Since moving out to the west coast, there’s a lot of candy changes I’ve noticed when I go to the local stores. It’s amazing to me how regional candy can be, and some treats that I was so used to seeing are no longer around. Then there’s the candies that I never saw and now see routinely on my grocery store trips. Brown Haley’s Roca candies are one of these. I used to never be able to find them, and now that I’m on the west coast I see them everywhere. I’ve tried them unofficially, but I haven’t sat down to do a real officially review of them just yet. I hope to fix that some today with this seasonal variety of Roca that is peppermint flavored.

I really like the Roca’s package design. The red and white stripes and the easily recognizable Roca logo make it so beautiful and festive. The top opens up to reveal a sealed foil packet that holds the Roca pieces safely and keeps them fresh. Simple and easy design.

The candies come individuality wrapped in heavy foil wrappers that are decorated with white and red stripes. You can smell the chocolate through the wrappers. There’s only the the slightest hint of peppermint, which I was surprised by as I was expecting more of a scent. Once unwrapped, the Roca has a nice, deep dark chocolate coating. There’s a drizzle of white chocolate on top which gives it a nice seasonal feeling.

The first bite is incredibly crispy and just easily falls apart into nice soft pieces. The peppermint flavor is mixed into the dark chocolate, and it gives it a very rich flavor from the peppermint oil. The toffee’s buttery flavor shines through once the dark chocolate coating melts away. It’s beautifully sweet and very buttery with light toasted notes. The blending of the dark chocolate, the toffee and the peppermint flavoring is a very flavorful one. It works well with keeping what we all recognize to be a Roca candy, but at the same time it’s something seasonal.

I was super pleased with the texture of the toffee in these candies. They were hard, but shattered beautifully into pieces when bitten into the right way. The toffee pieces weren’t sharp and instead felt a little soft as you began to chew them. It’s completely delightful to much on these. The flavor is great too, with the peppermint being a great addition to the Roca’s normal flavors. These are a nice introduction into the Roca line if you’ve never had them. Also if you’re just crazy about Peppermint but don’t want something too strong, these are a good way to go. Rating: Will Eat Again

I really love how creative Marshmallow Peeps have been getting in the past couple of years. You can tell they’ve really been trying hard to replicate how people have been enjoying their chocolate dipped and chocolate covered peeps. So I was especially excited to see that they decided to go and make peppermint flavored Peeps and dip their cute behinds in chocolate for the holidays this year. I’ve really loved this style of Peep back during Easter time when they’ve had the coco Peeps with the chocolate coating, so I’m especially interested to see how the peppermint flavor goes over. It’s an incredibly festive idea and I bought these immediately once I saw them in the store.

Well, first things first! I looked at the ingredients list and the chocolate used here is indeed real chocolate. Phew! The Peeps are just adorable. They come three to a package and each one nestled in their own little plastic sections. The Peeps are a beautiful white with red peppermint flakes on them. The are super cute and super festive. The plastic tray they fit in protects them really well too, so none of my Peeps got squished.

The Peeps smell really intensely of peppermint. You can detect a little bit of the chocolate in the scent, but it’s mainly the peppermint.

The texture of the Peep is really soft and pillowy, like a Peep should be. The chocolate on the bottom is tasty and melts easily on the tongue. The peppermint flavor is the star here, but it’s still not a strong as I was expecting. The Peeps have a nice subtle vanilla flavor accented by the peppermint. The dark chocolate on the bottom has a really nice flavor that compliments the peppermint marshmallow perfectly. Considering I’ve had other Peeps of this variety, I think the peppermint marshmallow works a lot better than the standard marshmallow. It gives the candy a new depth to it. It’s not longer “just” a marshmallow peep.

I highly recommend these to anyone who loves Peeps and also adore the whole peppermint trend that shows up this time of year. I can also see these used for a lot of really neat food decorations; on top of mugs of hot cocoa or to decorate cupcakes. These Peeps taste great and look super cute and festive at the same time!

I was super excited to see that 3 Musketeers came out with a new limited edition flavor for the holidays. I spotted it on one of my trips to Target, which of course always leads me to cruise the candy aisles. I was lucky and spotted this one, since, in a way it looks very similar to the normal “festive” bag of regular 3 Musketeer minis. Over the years I’ve learned to be careful and to read the packages to make sure I’m not missing anything new. And this time it has certainly paid off!

This is quite a big bag of minis, ready for the holiday candy bowl. Each wrapper either is either silver or a nice light cocoa color. The aroma is very sweet and smells very much like a normal 3 Musketeer candy bar. There’s nothing in the appearance that looks different to me. I do very much love the festive artwork on the bag and it makes my brain scream “Yay! Christmas!” over and over.

The flavor is different in the ways I was expecting. The chocolate flavor has a very different essence to it. The chocolate has a very strong edge of dry milk power. It comes across like the aroma when you stick your nose into a bin of Nesquick. Even though cocoa as a drink is very watery in flavor, these candies don’t come across that way at all. Even though the nougat in the center is flavored like cocoa, the chocolate coating elevates the flavor and really makes it into a candy that stands on its own. As for the texture, it’s that texture we all know and love from 3 Musketeers. It’s light and fluffy, but very rich at the same time. Super delicious!

I found myself reaching for these 3 Musketeers the most while having my morning coffee. The fluffy texture (which I do love) and the smooth, rich chocolate flavor paired itself really well with a hot cup of coffee. I wonder since these are hot cocoa flavored, does that mean I had a mocha? I can’t rightfully say since I know little about making coffee drinks. Regardless, I really enjoyed them and the people I shared them with also seemed to enjoy them. They did say that these tasted “different” from regular 3 Musketeers, but they all couldn’t quite lay their finger on it. All I know is they’re yummy and they’re something you should try out.

The holiday season is now in full swing! This is an exciting time for any candy lover as the sweets that come out for the Holidays are always interesting and delicious. Which is why I was super excited to hear from Hedonist Artisan Chocolates about reviewing some complimentary samples their Salted Caramels. It has been a few years since I tried and reviewed the Hedonist Chocolates’s Holiday Truffle Collection. It was super delicious and awesome so I was most eager to give their Salted Caramels a try.

I first need to comment on the beautiful packaging that these Salted Caramels come in. It’s simple yet so very stylish with the dark brown box and the simple golden rod yellow ribbon. It speaks of elegance with the subtle styling. Once the box is opened, the caramels are beautifully arranged in a tray that keeps them separated and safe. The milk and dark varieties are easy to distinguish, one is noticeable lighter in color. Each has salt sprinkled on top. They smell rich of chocolate, but I detect no notes of caramel in there.

Dark Chocolate Caramel: You immediately taste the salt on your first bite, which elevates the caramel into a whole new level of intensity. The sweetness of the chocolate and the butteryness of the caramel are elevated and the flavor is more grand. The richness of the dark chocolate delivers sweetness that isn’t overpowering and mingles nicely with the salt. The buttery caramel it out of this world! It’s smooth and not too sticky in texture. The flavor is complex, with the flavor rooted in butter accented with nice toasted notes. Again, mixed with the salt, just makes the flavor simply “pop”. It’s incredibly deliciousness.

Milk Chocolate Caramel: The salt really makes these chocolate incredible. The milk chocolate is sweet and creamy, and adds a lovely sweetness but not much chocolate flavor. The caramel is so delicious. It’s buttery and sweet, with nice deep toasted notes that contrast beautifully with the salt. Because the milk chocolate isn’t as flavorful as the dark chocolate, you can taste the caramel much better. I found that I got even more flavors out of the caramel when tasting the milk chocolate pieces. Along with the buttery ans toasted notes, I get a tad of smoke which reminds me of how toasted marshmallows smell. It’s so a delightful play of flavor and texture as you eat it. These are meant to be slowly savored as the flavors are so wonderful.

This package also came with a surprise: Candy Cane Bark!

Gorgeous isn’t it?

The slabs of bark are thick, as least a 1/4 of an inch. They’re mainly bittersweet chocolate (55%), with white chocolate swirls on top and a generous coating of candy cane crumbles. They are very attractive!

Despite all the candy cane crumbles, this bar still smells of chocolate. It’s a sweet smell too, full of cream, caramel and coffee. The flavor is a wonderful balance of peppermint and chocolate. This is an Andes Mint on super steroids. You first get the flavor from the candy canes, with their sweet and intense peppermint flavor. It’s cool and refreshing and leaves a wonderful fresh flavor in your mouth. The chocolate is just luscious, it’s creamy, sweet and incredibly chocolatey. It compliments the candy cane bits so well. I couldn’t stop reaching for this bark one I opened the package, a sign that it is indeed irresistible.

I simply loved these samples from Hedonist Chocolates. They were really delicious and you could tell that they really used fresh, quality ingredients in making these chocolates. Both the Salted Caramels and the Candy Cane bark didn’t last very long between my husband and myself eating them once I had my tasting notes for the review. I know several of my family members who are going to love these, and I plan to buy them some for the holiday season (some of them are caramel people). I’ll buy myself another box of course too. Hedonist have really kept up the quality since I last sampled their chocolates, and I greatly look forward to when I can have some again!

I was lucky to find this bag of Lindt Lindor Holiday Spice Mick Chocolate Truffles (say that three times faster) in Cost Plus World Market the other day. I had originally gone in there to see if I could find the Ritter Sport Espresso that Cybele from Candyblog.net found there, but alas I came back empty handed. I found these Lindor truffles instead though, so I’d say that was a good trade. Lindt is a chocolate brand that I’ve always enjoyed, respected and have kept an eye on. They’ve been forever present in my chocolate-loving life, and I love trying what new things they have to offer.

The package is a wonderful warm russet color with gold lettering. There’s snowflakes scattered on the package, so it does carry a decorative seasonal element. The truffles are protected in a beautiful golden wrapper, so as they may not carry the typical holiday color scheme of red and green, they still manage to feel seasonal. The illustration of the Lindor truffle next to some cinnamon sticks give the viewer a good idea of what to expect with the truffles.

The flavor is wonderful and just reeks of holiday yuletide. The milk chocolate is rich and chocolatey, with nice notes of caramel and cream. The spice flavor is incredible, the predominant spice flavor I taste is nutmeg, accented with cinnamon and some mace. It’s really tasty and it evokes the holiday charm so well. The texture is also amazing, as all the Lindor truffles share. The shell is thick but easy to break into, and the center is so incredibly silky smooth it just feels so luxurious.

I really loved these, as did my boyfriend when we shared some with Sunday morning coffee. They are rich and chocolatey with just the right amount of spice to make them interesting. I plan on going back once everything goes on sale to grab more of these, as they’re certainly a new favorite of mine.